Our European patent application 12196908.3, published as EP2607658A2, discloses a gas turbine engine assembly connected to a pylon structure for mounting the gas turbine engine to an aircraft. The assembly has a frame attached to the pylon at forward and rearward engine mounting locations and the frame supports accessories independently of the gas turbine engine. Our European patent application 12196908.3, EP2607658A2, discloses that the accessories are arranged in an accessory mounting zone between the core engine casing and an inner nacelle surrounding the core engine.
The accessory mounting frame is subject to vibrations and/or other loads and these vibrations and/or other loads may result in damage to the accessory mounting frame. If the damage to the accessory mounting frame were to remain undetected and therefore unrepaired, or replaced, it may lead to a failure of one or more portions or the whole of the accessory mounting frame.
The accessory mounting frame carries all the accessories for the gas turbine engine and a failure of the accessory mounting frame may lead to loss of operation of one or more of the accessories, e.g. may lead to a loss of hydraulic supply, a loss of fuel supply, a loss of lubricant supply or a loss of electrical power which may result in a failure of the gas turbine engine.
Therefore the present invention seeks to provide a novel arrangement for detecting damage to the accessory mounting frame which reduces or overcomes the above mentioned problem.